Ruminations

By Andy Teirstein

A border can be represented by a line on a map. But expand that line, it becomes its own space, fertile with the dramatic potential for either violence or something else—learning, collaboration, evolution. As ethnographer Amy Horowitz puts it, “the edge can become the center.” Translucent Borders gathers artist scholars to look at points of global intersection. Our observations are based on experiences in the field. There is no substitute for being there.

By Andy Teirstein

If, as Carl Jung suggested, there is a collective unconscious shared among our species, then the yearning for travel to foreign countries leads us in the direction of self-revelation, a way of unveiling aspects of the collective landscape that are, deliciously, still unexplored. What is mysterious is also seductive. And since mystery involves the as-yet-unknown, it follows that a gap in knowledge is an essential ingredient in wanderlust. We carry our ignorance with us when we travel, because we wouldn't leave home without it. And how deep and variegated it can be, this essential not-knowing that we bring.